Edmonton – For me, the early 90s meant brightly coloured shirts and more pop music that anyone could possibly need for one lifetime. But, halfway around the world, all hell was breaking loose. Last night I had the good fortune to check out the opener for the Global Vision Film Festival in Edmonton. Triage is about Dr. James Orbinski, who served with Medicines Sans Frontiers (Docs Without Borders, to my fellow anglophones) during the devastating famine in Somalia in 1992, the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and the related refugee camps in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1996. Orbinski travels from Toronto to these three locales of his past, relating stories of the things he had seen and the people he had met. Spliced into his narratives are video clips from the time and I must admit that I can’t get some of these terrible images out of my head. Maybe it’s best to not have one’s head in the sand though. Those who plead ignorance to the past are just as likely to repeat it as those who have forgotten. Put on your courage cap and see this doc.
For related info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Rwanda
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hawk_Down_(book)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shake_Hands_With_the_Devil
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